This map of Paraguay and the Rio de la Plata basin is the work of Willem Blaeu (1571-1638), the founder of a famous Dutch mapmaking dynasty. Blaeu studied astronomy, mathematics, and globe-making with the Danish scholar Tycho Brahe before establishing his mapmaking studio in Amsterdam. In 1633, he was appointed mapmaker of the Dutch East India Company. In 1635, together with his sons Joan and Cornelis, Blaeu published the Atlas Novus (New atlas), an 11-volume work consisting of 594 maps.

Between 1880 and 1915, the Argentine railroad network expanded from 1,388 miles (2,234 kilometers) to 22,251 miles (35,809 kilometers) in length, making it the longest on the continent of South America and the eighth longest in the world. Railroads played a key role in economic development and national consolidation and made possible Argentina’s emergence as a major exporter of wheat, beef, and other products. The most important railroads were owned and built by British companies, which were granted concessions by the Argentine government because of ...

Intensive railroad development took place in Argentina between 1880 and 1916, a period of rapid economic growth and national consolidation. The railroads made possible Argentina’s emergence as a major exporter of wheat, beef, and other products. The most important railroads were owned and built by British companies, which were granted concessions by the Argentine government because of their technical expertise and their ability to raise large sums on the London market to finance the construction. This 1899 map, issued by the Buenos Ayres and Pacific Railway Company, of London ...

Allegatio ivris, et consilium pro examinandis et approbandis miraculis religio fissimi viri Francisci Solano Seraphici Franciscani ordinis alumni(Legal allegation and decision to examine and approve the miracles on record of the very pious man Father Francis Solano, member of the Seraphic Franciscan Order) was published in Lima, Peru, in 1612. Saint Francis Solano (1549−1610) was a Spanish-born Franciscan friar who came to South America in 1589, where he worked for 20 years as a missionary among the Indians of northwestern Argentina and Paraguay. He was canonized in 1726 ...

This Spanish map of the Río Uruguay from Estancia San Gregorio to Yapeyu was prepared by Joseph Varela y Ulloa (1739-94), the commander of the Spanish party of the joint Spanish-Portuguese boundary commission that surveyed the Uruguay and Paraguay river basins between 1784 and 1788. The survey took place after the signing, in October 1777, of the First Treaty of San Ildefonso between Spain and Portugal, which settled the outstanding border disputes between the two empires in the region of the Rio de la Plata. The map shows the route ...

Acarete du Biscay was a Frenchman, possibly of Basque origin, about whom very little is known. In December 1657 he embarked from Cádiz, Spain for the Plate River region of South America, posing as the nephew of a Spanish gentleman to circumvent a ban by Spain on visits by foreigners to its New World possessions. In 1658 he traveled overland across the Argentine pampas to the silver mines of Potosí, located in present-day Bolivia. In 1672, Acarete published an account of this trip in his native French. A later version ...

This clear and beautifully executed late 18th century Spanish map of the vicinity of Oran in the extreme north of Argentina was intended to promote settlement in this region. The map was prepared at the behest of Ramón Garcia de Leon y Pizarro, Governor and Captain General of the Province of Salta, who founded Oran in August 1794, possibly as an outpost to strengthen Spanish territorial claims along the then Spanish-Portuguese frontier. The map shows the planned and partially settled community of Oran, other settlements, a sugar plantation, individual land ...

This photograph of gauchos at work in Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and film ...

This photograph of newly arrived immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass ...

This photograph of immigrants in Buenos Aires, Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and film ...

This photograph of an immigrant’s home in Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and ...

Between 1609 and 1780, the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) established an autonomous Christian Indian state on the territory of present-day Paraguay, Uruguay, and parts of Argentina and Brazil. After unsuccessful efforts to Christianize the warlike Guaycurú Indians of northeastern Paraguay, the Jesuits concentrated on organizing the Guaraní Indians into a series of reducciones (reductions or townships), in which a kind of communal living was practiced. The system of reductions was an attempt to correct earlier abuses, in which the Paraguayan Indians were transformed into virtual slaves who ...

This photograph shows a gaucho in traditional dress cooking meat over a homemade spit. Gaucho is a term used to denote descendants of the early Spanish colonizers who traditionally led a semi-nomadic life on the South American pampas. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrating life and culture in the Americas. Many of the photographs were taken by prominent photographers on OAS missions to member countries. The OAS was established in April 1948 ...

This photograph shows a couple in traditional costumes dancing the zamba, one of Argentina's most popular dance forms. The dance originated in Peru in the Creole genre known as the zamacueca, which was adopted in Chile as the cueca. The zamba is a slow dance in three-quarter time played primarily on guitar and bombo legüero (the indigenous Argentine bass drum). The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which includes 45,000 photographs illustrating life and culture in the ...

This photograph shows a gaucho in traditional dress pouring hot water from a kettle to make maté, a traditional drink common to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay that is made from the yerba maté plant native to subtropical South America. In the background is a tepee-like structure. Gaucho is a term used to denote descendants of the early Spanish colonizers who traditionally led a semi-nomadic life on the South American pampas. The photograph is from the collection of the Columbus Memorial Library of the Organization of American States (OAS), which ...

This book is the only known copy of the second-oldest imprint from the Jesuit Province of Paraguay. It was produced at the mission of Nuestra Señora de Loreto, established in 1610 as the first reduccione (reduction or township) in the province, and known for its printing press, which turned out works in Spanish, Latin, and Indian languages. The book contains a set of religious instructions, written by Father Antonio Garriga (1662-1733). Originally from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, Garriga first came to South America in 1696. He is best known as ...

This photograph of Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and 7,000 glass and film negatives ...

In June 1615, Dutch navigators Jacob Le Maire (circa 1585–1616) and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten (circa 1567–1625) set out in two ships, the Eendracht and the Hoorn, from the Dutch port of Texel. Their goal was to find a new route to the Moluccas Islands, Europe’s main source of pepper in the lucrative spice trade with the East Indies, and in so doing avoid the trade monopoly of the Dutch East Indies Company. They sailed south of the Strait of Magellan and on January 24, 1616, discovered a ...

In June 1615, Dutch navigators Jacob Le Maire (circa 1585–1616) and Willem Corneliszoon Schouten (circa 1567–1625) set out in two ships, the Eendracht and the Hoorn, from the Dutch port of Texel, seeking to find a new route to the East Indies. They made landfall on the coast of South America in early December, at Port Desire (present-day Puerto Deseado, Argentina). This near-contemporary print shows the sailors from the Hoorn and the Eendracht at work on shore. Seeking to replenish their supplies after nearly six months at sea ...

The first circumnavigation of the globe was the voyage of 1519–22 by the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), undertaken in the service of Spain. The only known first-hand account of the voyage is the journal by Venetian nobleman and scholar Antonio Pigafetta (circa 1480–1534). Four manuscript versions of Pigafetta’s journal survive, three in French and one in Italian. Pigafetta also made 23 beautiful, hand-drawn color maps, a complete set of which accompanies each of the manuscripts. Shown here is Pigafetta’s map of the Strait of ...

This map of “Magellanica,” the land south of the Strait of Magellan, is by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, a leading Dutch cartographer and map publisher and the founder of a family of distinguished mapmakers that included his sons Joan and Cornelis. Born in the Netherlands in 1571, between 1594 and 1596 Blaeu studied in Denmark under the astronomer Tycho Brahe, where he developed skills as an instrument and globe maker. Returning to Amsterdam, he founded the family map company. In 1608 he was appointed chief hydrographer of the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie ...

This 1917 photograph of Nahuel Huapí Lake in the Patagonia region of Argentina is from the Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection at the Library of Congress. Frank G. Carpenter (1855–1924) was an American writer of books on travel and world geography, whose works helped to popularize cultural anthropology and geography in the United States in the early years of the 20th century. Consisting of photographs taken and gathered by Carpenter and his daughter Frances (1890–1972) to illustrate his writings, the collection includes an estimated 16,800 photographs and ...

This composite map of the 1785-86 scientific expedition to the Strait of Magellan under the command of Antonio de Córdoba (1740?-1811) represents the first comprehensive study of the region. The map includes references to ports, bays, channels, and other natural features, a keyed legend, and a detailed explanation and notes. Córdoba was a commander (teniente general) in the Spanish Navy who participated in various battles, campaigns, and scientific expeditions throughout the Spanish Empire and beyond. These activities took him to Havana in 1761, Algiers in 1767, Peru, Chile, and ...

El Mosquito, which described itself as a “weekly independent, satirical, burlesque periodical with caricatures,” appeared for the first time on May 24, 1863. In the more than 1,500 issues published between then and the last issue in 1893, the newspaper satirized the behavior of local politicians. The publication provides a unique vantage point on the formation of the modern nation-state in Argentina. Published on Sundays, the newspaper consisted of four pages, with the two middle pages exclusively dedicated to lithographs that caricaturized current events and important figures of the ...

This early map of Brazil is by Jacopo Gastaldi (circa 1500-circa 1565), a Piedmontese cartographer who worked in Venice and rose to the position of cosmographer of the Venetian Republic. Gastaldi produced maps and illustrations for parts of Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (Travels and voyages), a compilation of travel writings by the Venetian diplomat and geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557). Ramusio’s work contained more than 50 memoirs, including the writings of Marco Polo.